Imitation natural product and process of producing the same



July 2@ 19% J. H. $TEVEN$ ET AL IMITATION NATURAL PRODUCT AND PROCESS OF PRODUCING THE SAME Filed Dec. 17, 1924 Oil patented July 20, 1926.

UNITED STATES 1,593,314 PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN HENRY STEVENS, OF SOUTH ORANGE, AND WILLIAM G. LINDSAY, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNORS TO THE CELLULOID COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

IMITATION NATURAL PRODUCT AND PROCESS OF PRODUCING THE SAME.

Application filed December 17, 1924. Serial No. 7565M.

I-Ieretofore, it has been customary to form artificial amber, horn, shell and similar products by combining the separate parts or colors in rolls, presses or stuffing machines according to certain pattern-aims, which, however, have been limited to the elliciency of such means of combination. Thus horn and marbleized effects are produced by coloring or pigmenting separately the desired components, then reducing them to sheet or lump form and afterwards effecting the final combination by mixing or flowing these forms or parts according to taste,.all within the circumscribed possibilities of rolls, presses, and staffers. As a consequence of these limitations the imitations aimed at have only been accomplished with some difliculty and more or less imperfectly.

Now according to our invention, we use as a base a pressed block of one simple color, preferably a transparent, and secure the necessary configuration by printing or otherwise applying the figure or design on successive planings, which are then reunited into a block from which sheets can be cut in the usual manner. We thus do away with all uncertainty of design and predetermine our configurations according to the desired pattern. Sheets in dry condition can be used if they are suitably softened to permit resolidification.

As an example of our process and product we shall consider the subject to be that of horn. For this purpose we first make a pressed block of pyroxylin plastic colored and slightly clouded to represent the transparent part. After smoothing off the top of the block We print by means of stencil or type or patterned roller, and preferably with a solvent ink, such part of the design in streaks or blotches as will represent the appearance of natural horn when of an equivalent thickness or gauge. This thickness will vary say from 5 to 25 thousandths of an inch according to the thickness of the final sheet or article. By suitable manipulation or shifting of the printing effect we are enabled to create alsothe necessary variety of pattern in these successive planings, so that the built-up sheets finally pro duced will represent the pattern or mixture "of components in a piece of natural horn.

By this process as applied to imitations of animal, vegetable and mineral specimens, we render the operator independent of the usual restrictions of the separate coloration method of rolls and presses, and give full scope to his artistic skill. ln other words, we venable him to reproduce at will much closer approximations of horn, shell, semiprecious stones, fine woods, ambers, corals, and the like, than is possible with present methods. As for stufl'er figures our method has merely a limited use but will nevertheless apply. Its aim is principally the production of sheets. For stuffed efiects the sheeting will have to be first produced by the roll or press operation. 7

The principle involved in our invention is the building up of a mass of imitative substance by means of successive layers which represent the fractional parts of the natural substance imitated. It is obvious as well that we can also produce fanciful colorations not necessarily imitative of any particular stone or substance; but the chief value of our method is its adaptability to the fine reproduction of those natural substances which according to trade preferences should be copies of the original design. The -accentuation of pattern by flow in the ress or other machinery is not excluded ut can be employed effectively as desired.

While our process is particularly valuable in making imitations of transparent prodnets of nature it can be also applied to patterns in which'translucency or semi-transparency plays a part, by which products we mean any substance whose surface effects or variations are influenced by colors lying under such surface. We can also produce semi-solid or opaque variegations by so printing and pressing that the planer knife or subsequent carving operations will bring out a varied surface of streaked, blotched or wavy appearance.

In the accompanying drawing, which illustrates conventionally one embodiment of our invention, Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive represent successive planings upon each of which has been printed or otherwise impressed a design in imitation of the natural design appearing on successive sections of tortoise shell, and Fig. 5 shows the product formed by consolidating the sheets of Figs. 1 to 4 and wherein the different designs of bgieets 1-4 are all visible in the consolidated s eet.

In one of the many possible embodiments of our invention, shown in the drawing, the final decorated product is formed by the consolidation of four decorated sheets. These sheets might be 3 3; in thickness and the final out sheet four times that thickness. For a shell of forty-one thousandths inch the individual sections could be approximately ten thousandths inch. For half an inch they might be one hundred thousandths inch, or for a close pattern full of detail six, eight or even ten sheets might make up the final product. In the production of imitation tortoise shell, the component sheets would be transparent amber, and the printings would be dark brown, the detail of which would be the peculiar fine broken lines of the real tortoise shell.

Though we prefer to operate with pyroxylin plastics of celluloid character, our method is e ually applicable to any plastic which can e planed from a block, then printed upon, and then resolidified to form an imitation of natural or fanciful patterns. We refer, for example, to a plastic of acetylcellulose or other derivative or material that can be produced in transparent or translucent sheet form, printed upon and assembled by suitable means to solidify the layers.

l/Vhile we refer specifically to the solidification of block planings, any similar consolidation of printed or marked films or sheets or layers made by other processes is within the scope of our invention.

We claim:

1. The process of imitating horn or other natural products which consists in printing the design or part-pattern on successive planings of a pressed block of pyroxylin or similar plastic and then reuniting the said printed planings to form the completed reproduction.

2. An imitation of horn or other natural product which consists of a solified assemblage of printed planings from a block of pyroxylin or analogous plastic.

3. The process of imitating horn or other natural products which consists in printing the design or part-pattern on successive planings of a pressed block of pyroxylin or similar plastic, such planings being of a thickness 25 thousandtlis inch or less, and then reuniting the said printed planings to form the completed reproduction.

4. An imitation of horn or other natural product which consists of a solidified assemblage of printed planings from a block of pyroxylin or analogous plastic, such planings being of a thickness 25 thousandths inch or less.

5. A carved solidified assemblage of printed sheets in fanciful or natural patterns whose effect is shown by transmitted light.

6. An imitation natural product which consists of a solidified assemblage of printed plastic sheets.

7 The process which consists in forming designs on the surfaces of transparent plastic sheets and subsequently uniting the sheets.

8. A process of making imitation natural products which consists in forming similar designs on a plurality of transparent sheets of a plastic and consolidating said sheets to form a mass in which said designs are visible at varying depths below the surface of the mass.

9. The process of making imitation natural products which consists in forming similar designs on a plurality of transparent sheets of a plastic and assembling the sheets so that the designs are progressively and laterally spaced from one another and con solidating said assembled sheets.

10. The process of imitating horn or other natural products which consists in printing the design or part-pattern on successive planings of a pressed block of pyroxylin or similar plastic, said design or part-pattern representing the appearance of the horn or (.thcr product when of equivalent thickness to said planing, and then uniting the said printed planings to form the completed reproduction.

11. The process of imitating horn or other natural products which consists in printing the design or part-design on successive planings of a pressed block of pyroXy-lin or other plastic, said design or part-pattern representing the appearance of the horn or other product when of equivalent thickness to said planing, uniting the said printed planings to form a block and cutting the block into sheets of desired thickness.

JOHN HENRY STEVENS. WILLIAM G. LINDSAY.

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